flushot injection site reaction

what kind of reaction are you talking about? You should be able to massage the area and break up some of the swelling. If it's hot and red that would be something else entirely.

This year was particularly nasty for me too, and my brother as well. He actually broke out in hives on his body afterwards. Which he has never done before. I was okay until day 4 and had about 12 hours of fever, chills and body aches. But then they vanished. Sounds good that it's getting better for you at least.

I had a terrible reaction a couple years ago. Pain so intense at the injection site that I did not fall asleep at all the night of the shot, and the next morning I couldn't change out of my nightgown because I couldn't raise my arm over my head to get the nightgown off. I suspect that it was just bad luck and the nurse hit a nerve when she injected me. It took a few days for the pain to go away, but it did eventually disappear. Last year I was very nervous about getting the flu shot, so I did it in two half-doses rather than the full dose, and didn't have any trouble with either injection. I'll probably go back to doing the full dose this year.

I have had the pneumonia vaccine twice now and had no trouble either time. A nurse told me that they see more irritation from the flu shots than they do from the pneumonia ones. Not a reason to skip the flu vaccine though, if you already have a chronic illness. Even dealing with a couple days of pain or irritation is way better than dealing with complications from getting the flu.